Vt. dodges bullet in Sandy, offers aid to others

Sandy's remnants lashed Vermont Tuesday morning in the form of periodically heavy rain. Utility crews slogged through it in several communities as they worked to restore power. The state's largest utility, Green Mountain Power, was busy hitting trouble spots. It had several thousand outages to deal with Tuesday, down from around 37,000, said Green Mountain Power CEO Mary Powell.

Powell told New England Cable News that Sandy was a "significant event" for Vermont, but said the state was lucky to avoid the kind of more serious disasters her peers in other states had on their hands. "The goal is as soon as we're done, we're going to ship crews south to help in the rest of New England and the New York and New Jersey area," Powell said.

Other Vermont power companies also planned to send line crews to assist harder-hit regions. According to a tweet sent Tuesday morning by Burlington, Vt. Mayor Miro Weinberger, the Burlington Electric Dept. has two line crews on their way to Sandy-ravaged areas. "We're going to see they need help probably until the beginning of next week," Powell said.

The sense that Vermont needs to help out other states may be amplified by the fact the Green Mountain State got so much help from other places after its worst-ever natural disaster, Tropical Storm Irene, in 2011. Gov. Peter Shumlin, D-Vt., said now it's time to remember that kindness and pay it forward.

Shumlin told President Barack Obama and other East Coast governors and mayors on a conference call Tuesday that because Vermont saw comparatively very minor damage, his state can share resources. "We're here to help," Shumlin said on the call.

That assistance includes two Black Hawk helicopters assigned to the Vt. National Guard. Shumlin, the commander-in-chief of the Vt. Guard, told reporters Tuesday he authorized a loan of the federally-owned military equipment to New Jersey. "We're grateful that we are where we are without more significant damage," Gov. Shumlin said. "We're obviously extremely sympathetic and empathetic, having survived Irene and other storms, to our neighbors to the south. And we're going to be offering them all the help that they deserve and need as they go through some very difficult days ahead."